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Earth

How Close Are We To Engineering the Climate? 319

Posted by samzenpus from the it's-getting-hot-in-here dept.
merbs writes The scientists had whipped themselves into a frenzy. Gathered in a stuffy conference room in the bowels of a hotel in Berlin, scores of respected climate researchers were arguing about a one-page document that had tentatively been christened the "Berlin Declaration." It proposed ground rules for conducting experiments to explore how we might artificially cool the Earth—planet hacking, basically. This is the story of scientists' first major international meeting to tackle geoengineering. It’s most commonly called geoengineering. Think Bond-villain-caliber schemes but with better intentions. It’s a highly controversial field that studies ideas like launching high-flying jets to dust the skies with sulfur in order to block out a small fraction of the solar rays entering the atmosphere, or sending a fleet of drones across the ocean to spray seawater into clouds to make them brighter and thus reflect more sunlight. Those are two of the most discussed proposals for using technology to chill the planet and combat climate change, and each would ostensibly cost a few billion dollars a year—peanuts in the scheme of the global economy. We’re about to see the dawn of the first real-world experiments designed to test ideas like these, but first, the scientists wanted to agree on a code of ethics—how to move forward without alarming the public or breaking any laws.
The Internet

Cluetrain Authors Offer an Updated Guide To the Web 24

Posted by samzenpus from the get-a-clue dept.
Esther Schindler points out that new "Clues" have been added to the Cluetrain Manifesto. "If you’ve ever said, 'markets are conversations' you’re quoting the words of The Cluetrain Manifesto, the ’90s-era opus on the promise of the Web. David Weinberger and Doc Searls (two of the original authors of Cluetrain) are publishing another provocative work today called New Clues. Weinberger says: 'The Cluetrain Manifesto was an attempt to explain to businesses and the media what they were getting wrong about the Web. In the broadcast era, a mass audience was fed what the media owners thought they wanted. It was one-way communication. The Web lets us communicate directly with one another about what matters to us. The Web’s been a social world since it began. A pall has descended even among those of us who have believed in the Net as an opportunity for transformation. What seemed inevitable 15 years ago now is at risk. So Doc and I thought it was time for a re-assessment. For many people, the Net now feels like just another way commercial media feed us content and toys. We can treat it like that. Or we can remember the Net’s original and true essence: it is a set of connections open to anyone. We have built wonders with it. Those days are far from over. But we have to take back the idea and meaning of the Net. We have to make sure that it stays open to everyone, every idea, and every connection.'"

Comment Re:Fuck the libs! (Score 1) 216

by mr_mischief (#48764979) Attached to: Bill Would Ban Paid Prioritization By ISPs

See, this just shows the screwed up nature of calling the R the right and the D the left. Pro abortion rights? Rightist. Pro gun control? Leftist. Pro gay marriage? Rightist. Pro marijuana? Rightist.

You see, the "right" or "conservative" traditionally wants a smaller government with less control over people's daily lives. The "left" wants more and bigger government with more control over the population.

The current parties are both hybrids. One claims to want a smaller, leaner government with less control over _industry_ and _markets_ but more control over _lives_. The other wants bigger social spending and more control over _industry_ and _markets_ but to let the individual do pretty much what they want.

Many Democrats these days fiscally are more in favor of limiting spending than Reagan did, meanwhile wanting to infringe less on individual rights.

If we had anything other than this false dichotomy of a self-reinforcing two-party system we may just find a party in some amount of power that wants to get the government out of your office _and_ your bedroom as much as possible.

Comment The "wheel" group is an admin group (Score 4, Informative) 118

by mr_mischief (#48629205) Attached to: Grinch Vulnerability Could Put a Hole In Your Linux Stocking

Truth: some Linux distros have a "wheel" group.
Truth: this group is used as a list of people with elevated permissions
Truth: one of the elevated permissions often assigned to this group is the ability to become root, especially with sudo
Falsehood: all users on a Linux system are members of the "wheel" group
Falsehood: one can add oneself to the "wheel" group without having permissions already elevated above regular user status

tl;dr: someone misunderstands groups and called it a vulnerability

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